Metropolitan Police Acting Deputy Commissioner, Cressida Dick, tells the
Leveson Inquiry that deputy London Mayor Kit Malthouse asked her three times
to scale back the phone hacking investigation.

A senior Scotland Yard officer had to bat down Boris Johnson's deputy when he kept questioning the resources devoted to the force's new phone-hacking investigation, the Leveson Inquiry heard today.

Assistant Commissioner Cressida Dick said she reminded Kit Malthouse that it was for her to make the decision, not him, because British police are operationally independent.

Ms Dick said Mr Malthouse, then-chairman of Scotland Yard's former governing body the Metropolitan Police Authority, voiced his concerns to her after Scotland Yard launched a new phone-hacking probe in January 2011.

She told the inquiry: "On a couple of occasions Mr Malthouse, I thought jokingly, said to me, 'I hope you're not putting too much resources into this, Cressida'.